William Haydn Mervyn Matthews (July 25, 1932 – November 26, 2017) was a British expert on Soviet society, writer, and broadcaster.[1]
He was born in Swansea and his early years are described in his 2002 memoir Mervyn's Lot. He took a degree in Russian at Manchester University, then moved to St Catherine's College, Oxford, then St Antony's College for work on his Ph.D.[1]
The story of his love with his future wife from the Soviet Union (see "Family") cost him carrier.[1] He was accepted as a research fellow at Moscow University, but expelled from the Soviet Union in 1964 for "anti-Soviet propaganda and speculation".[a][3] St Antony's College annulled his research fellowship for political troublemaking, after which he moved to Nottingham University.[1] He eventually settled as reader in the University of Surrey's linguistic and regional studies department.[1][4]
Books
edit- 1972: Class and Society in Soviet Russia
- 1978: Privilege in the Soviet Union: A Study of Elite Life-Styles Under Communism
- 1982: Education in the Soviet Union: Policies and Institutions Since Stalin
- 1986: Poverty in the Soviet Union: The Life-styles of the Underprivileged in Recent Years
- 1989: Patterns of Deprivation in the Soviet Union Under Brezhnev and Gorbachev
- 1993: The Passport Society: Controlling Movement In Russia And The USSR
- 2008: Mother Russia: A thrilling tale of crooks, corpses and Penclawdd cockles
- (ed.) Soviet government: A selection of official documents on internal policies
- (ed.)Soviet Sociology, 1964-75: A Bibliography
- (ed.)Party, State and Citizen in the Soviet Union: A Collection of Documents
- Trilogy of memoirs[5]
- Mervyn's Lot, "covered his troubled boyhood in war-torn Swansea of the thirties and forties"
- Mila and Mervusya, "recounts the gripping tale of his extraordinary adventures with the KGB in Khrushchev's Russia during the Cold War"
- Mervyn's Russia: A memoir of Russia, "his life in Pimlico with a colorful Russian wife Ludmila, following their marriage under the shadow of Lenin's statue in the Moscow Palace of Weddings in 1969; his return visits to the new, post-Soviet Russia and the many unusual Russians he met"
Family
editHe is father of Owen Matthews, a British expert on Soviet society. His wife was Lyudmila Bibikova, born in Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine. Their love history across the "Iron Curtain" had a notable place in Anglo-Soviet relations in the 1960s. It was told in Owen Matthews bestselling memoir Stalin’s Children and by Mervyn Matthews himself in Mila and Mervusya.[1][6][7] Bibikova's father, Boris Bibikov, was a Communist Party official exewcuted in 1937.[1]
Notes
edit- ^ спекуляция ("speculation") is a Russian term for profiteering. This refers to an episode when KGB caught Matthews when he tried to sell a sweater to a friend.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g Mervyn Matthews, expert on Soviet society – obituary
- ^ Андрей Остальский, Победившие "холодную войну", BBC, Russian service, June 15, 2008
- ^ Dr Mervyn Matthews Volume 696: debated on Friday 19 June 1964, UK Parliament
- ^ THE SOVIET UNION AND EASTERN EUROPE Edited byGEORGE SCHOPFLIN
- ^ Mervyn's Russia: A memoir of Russia Mervyn Matthews
- ^ Matthews, Owen (2008-08-28). "Stalin's Children by Owen Matthews". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
- ^ Virginia Rounding: Stalin's Children, by Owen Matthews, independent.co.uk, 20 June 2008